Beginning this May, the Artists Archives is thrilled to host a Fine Print Exhibition featuring the Society of American Graphic Artists (SAGA), one of the nation’s oldest organizations dedicated to creative printmaking. Based in New York City, SAGA was founded in 1915 to promote the advancement of the graphic arts and have exhibited such preeminent modern artists as Henri Matisse, Mary Cassatt, Käthe Kollwitz, Edward Hopper, Joseph Pennell, and Pablo Picasso.

The exhibition at the Artists Archives will include over 50 prints produced by their internationally renowned membership. Curator Mindy Tousley describes, “While the chosen pieces varied widely, there was a common bond expressed among the artists, and that was the love they held for printmaking…this exhibition is a celebration of their years of experience and love of the art form.”

The artists’ passion for their medium translates directly into their technical prowess. The exhibition boasts several reduction relief prints, referred to by Picasso as “suicide prints” because of the inability to make corrections as the block is cut away to produce layers of color. Also on display are jaw-dropping mezzotints which achieve a velvet-soft tonality by pitting a metal plate with thousands of interlocking dots.

In addition to being masters of their physical craft, the printmakers selected for the exhibition are also masters of observation. With laser-like precision, the artists capture the heartbeat of a city or the delicate cycles of nature on a printing plate and call forth their images for our reflection.

The SAGA Fine Print Exhibition will be celebrated with an in-person opening reception on Thursday, May 18th 5:30 – 8:00pm. Four exhibition awards will be sponsored by The Print Club of Cleveland, and will be juried by Dr. Emily J. Peters, Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

To accompany the show, the Artists Archives will also present Handing It Down, an exhibition in the museum’s Entrance Gallery featuring prints from the Jack and Linda Lissauer Collection. Curated by Jack Lissauer, the show will focus on artists who are also educators dedicated to passing down the knowledge of their craft to the next generation.

For more information and a preview of the stunning work in the exhibition, visit: https://www.artistsarchives.org/…/saga-fine-print…/

Need special accommodations? We’re happy to help! Email info@artistsarchives.org to plan your visit or call 216-721-9020 for assistance. We’re looking forward to seeing you!